Mishap
by Scyphi
Summary: Hacker has built a jury rigged Transformitron and it can only be used once and then it'll burn out. Hacker plans on making his one and only chance count, but naturally, things don't go according to plan... please R&R!
1. Jury Rigged

Summary: Hacker has built a jury-rigged Transformitron complete with a near-perfect replica of the NIC. Near-perfect, because it can only be used once and then it'll burn out. Hacker plans on making his one and only chance count, but naturally, things don't go according to plan. :)

Rating: K+ (probably less than that tho.)

Like "Parallelism," this fan-fic takes place after my first Cyberchase fan-fic, "The Time Traveler" chronologically, but will probably have little references to either, just enough to confirm it's place in the timeline. Dunno how long it'll last, but at most it'll be twelve chapters (my cyberchase fan-fics seem to average around that) however, I expect it to fall short of that.

Anyway, enjoy. :)

CYBERCHASE

MISHAP

1.

Jury-rigged

Hacker was feeling happy. Slightly insane, but happy. Delete and Buzz watched their boss prance around and around the machine Hacker had been scrounging to assemble for the past month or so.

"It's ready!" Hacker exclaimed in a sing-song voice, "The Transformitron is ready!"

He held his hands out wide at the machine. Buzz and Delete stared at it for a few seconds.

"Gee, boss, it seems...different." Delete remarked.

"Yeah." Buzz agreed. "It looks more, um, complex."

"Well, I did have to jury-rig some parts." Hacker admitted. "Okay, all of the parts. But it should work when I insert this."

He held up a small circuit board.

"The NIC." Hacker stated. "The very key to the Transformitron. Without it, it does not work."

"But where'd you get it boss?" Delete asked, puzzled. "I thought the Earth kids destroyed it."

"They did." Hacker said. "But they forgot their dealing with a genius. I merely built a new one. A near perfect replica. Only near perfect though, there were certain parts I couldn't recreate, and unfortunately that means it'll probably will burn out after using it only once. But I plan to make it count."

"But boss, if it burns out, how can it work?" Buzz asked.

"Idiot!" Hacker yelled. "Because the whole thing doesn't burn out, only the part that tells the Transformitron what to transform into what! The rest will still work, and that's what matters!"

And with that, Hacker turned around and slid the circuit board into a slot on the machine. A ready light blinked on, and through the jury-rigged contraption came a low hum.

"Yes, it's working!" Hacker said, rubbing his hands together. "Now lets see here, I've only got one shot at this, and I've got to make it count. Hmm, maybe I could transform into a..."

But Hacker got no further in his musings. A sudden alarm went off. Hacker jumped and ran to the nearest control panel.

"It's two of those Earth brats!" Hacker exclaimed, watching Inez and Jackie run past on a surveillance camera screen. "Motherboard must have found out what I plan to do!"

He let out an angry roar and began to walk out of the hanger bay out into the desert expanse of the Northern Frontier cybersite. "I'll handle them." he said. "You two stay here and keep guard. The other brat and that cyberturkey are undoubtably close by."

And with that, he left. He was unaware he was being watched as he left.

"It worked!" Digit exclaimed softly to Matt. "Jackie and Inez's distraction worked!"

"Now all we got to do is get in there, steal the NIC before Hacker comes back and uses the Transformitron, and meet up with Jackie and Inez at the portal." Matt said.

"But how do we get past those two?" Digit asked, pointing at Buzz and Delete, who were calmly standing next to the not-so sleek looking Transformitron.

"This is Buzz and Delete were talking about Didge!" Matt reminded him. "Getting past them will be the easy part! Look, I've got an idea. You run out, grab their attention and lure them away. I'll run in and grab the NIC, and head for the portal. You give them the slip after, say, fifteen minutes and head for the portal too."

"Sounds good Matti." Digit said, and he ran into the hanger bay, ducking under the parked Grim Wreaker as he made his way past. Pretty soon he was standing almost in front of the two henchmen robots.

"Hey noodlebrains!" Digit yelled.

"Hey!" Buzz yelled back in surprise and dove at Digit.

Digit nimbly leap aside and ran off. Buzz ran after him. Delete made a motion to follow, but then apparently thought against it and stayed put, to Matt's dismay. But, he told himself, Delete _was_ the dumber of the two robots, so fooling him should be real easy. Plus, Delete was known to occasionally sympathize with Motherboard's side. Maybe Matt could do that here.

He snuck forward towards the Transformitron. Delete saw him at one point, but it wasn't until a few moments later that it donned on the robot who he just saw.

"Hey!" Delete exclaimed. "Hey, wait a minute! You're not supposed to be here."

"True, but I've got to stop Hacker before it's too late." Matt said, making his way closer without hesitation.

This worried Delete, because he backed up into the Transformitron. "But..." he sputtered, "That'll make the boss unhappy, and he'll get mad at me and Buzzy!"

"But Delete, this isn't just for Cyberspace's well-being, but Hacker's as well." Matt said.

Delete paused. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed that Hacker's been acting a bit odd lately?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, ever since you guys got the Encryptor chip, he's been a little odd." Delete admitted. "Buzzy says the boss's lost it."

"He has." Matt confirmed. "Which is part of the reason I'm here. If Hacker gets that power he so desires now, there's no telling what he might do. He might hurt himself."

"The boss, hurt himself?" Delete asked, sounding scared at the thought.

"Right." Matt said, reaching the Transformitron and was slowly reaching for the NIC. "But if you let me take the NIC, we can avoid that."

Delete anxiously considered all of this while Matt slowly reached closer to the NIC. He was almost touching it when...

"Wait!" Delete said. "The boss said he has a security alarm on the NIC, to prevent anyone from stealing it!"

Matt froze. Could this be true? "How do I get the NIC, then?" he asked Delete. "Do you know?"

The robot thought for a moment. "In the transformation chamber, the boss said he has a switch that turns the security system on and off." he answered, "That's how."

Matt was suspicious. "That's an odd place to put it." he commented.

"The boss said that way no one would think to look there." Delete said.

Matt couldn't deny the logic in that. He thought about it. He didn't want to risk grabbing the NIC now that he knew there might be a security system to prevent it's theft. It couldn't hurt to check, could it?

Slowly, Matt stepped into the glass chamber, checking his watch in the process. His fifteen minutes where almost up, he'd have to be quick.

"Where is it?" Matt hissed urgently to Delete, who was still outside the chamber.

"In the back along the bottom." Delete answered.

Matt bent down to check in time to realize that there was no such switch and to hear the chamber door slam shut behind him.

"Delete?" Matt said, looking up to see the robot hurriedly start pressing buttons on the Transformitron.

"You _tricked_ me?" Matt yelled, not believe himself that he had fallen for it. He tried to push the door open, but it was locked from the outside.

Delete was still nervously pushing buttons.

"Why you little wingnut!" Matt yelled, trying to think up all of the names he could call Delete. "You little snitch, you little scamp, you little mouse, you-you..."

He was cut off by the sound of the Transformitron activating. Suddenly Matt felt funny all over. The world around him suddenly started to swell in size, and an instant later, everything went dark.


	2. A Little Problem

2.

A Little Problem

At first, Matt wasn't entirely sure what had happened. His senses were suddenly playing games on him. It was pitch dark, yet he could still sense something around him. Disoriented, he tried to stand, but struggled. His own limbs seemed to not want to obey, and he could only get halfway.

Matt felt around him blindly until his hand came in contact with something. It felt like some kind of fabric, yet solid enough to be a wall. He rubbed his skin against it, getting a good feel for it. It reminded him of the inside of his shoes, in fact...

Uh-oh.

Matt urgently felt around him some more, searching for evidence to prove him wrong, but there was no denying it. He knew exactly where he was. Inside his own shoe. Which meant he had shrunk, which meant Delete had activated the...

_I'm going to get that double-crossing robot._ Matt thought to himself, feeling around for openings that he could escape through. He finally found some differently textured fabric that he realized was his sock. Pushing it aside, Matt found himself caught in a faint beam of light, tinted green. Directly above him was more fabric, again of a completely different texture. It was his shirt.

Matt tried to stand again, but again found himself limited to only getting halfway there. Deciding that was close enough, he felt around with his hands until he found the opening in his shirt where his head and neck would go through, were he his full size.

Stretching it wide, he poked his head through and looked around.

All around him was a sea of fabric, the pile of clothing he had been wearing only seconds before. Towering above him was the roof of the transformation chamber, now seeming to be several hundreds of stories tall to Matt. Through the glass walls Matt could see the hanger bay and the Transformitron, as well as Delete, peering through the glass, looking worried, like this wasn't what he had in mind.

Matt didn't care if Delete planned it or not, he was still going to get him for all of this. He crawled out on top of the pile of clothing, heading towards Delete.

"Delete!" he was yelling, "You're going to fix this, right now!"

But Delete suddenly put on a foolish grin and kept staring at Matt. He realized that Delete couldn't hear him.

"Aww, how cute!" Delete exclaimed.

"_Cute?_" Matt repeated. "CUTE? Delete, I'm going to get you for this even if it's the last thing I do!"

He had yelled that at the top of his lungs, but Delete still couldn't hear him. The robot was now unlatching the chamber door instead, oblivious to Matt's threats. Matt tried to stand again, still found that he was somehow unable to, and instead ran for the door on all fours, with surprising ease. Like he was supposed to walk around like this.

Matt suddenly halted, feeling like he was dragging something long and heavy behind him. he whirled around to see what, but it wasn't there, and was still behind him. Matt suddenly felt his stomach sink, a bad feeling coming over him.

The chamber door swung open, and Delete bent down so that his face lined up with Matt's. He was still wearing that foolish grin. "I always did like furry things." he said gleefully.

"Furry things?" Matt repeated, bewildered. "_Furry things?_ What furry thi..."

Matt trailed off, suddenly realizing something. If it was possible, his stomach sank even lower. If he recalled properly how the chamber looked before the Transformitron activated, which the chances for that being very good, there was only one living being in the chamber. Himself. Which meant...

For the first time since the Transformitron activated, Matt looked down at his hands. Only they weren't hands anymore. They were paws. Fur ran up and down his arms and all over his body. Feeling his face, Matt felt that his mouth and nose had been stretched out to form a short snout. On top of his head were large, bat-like ears. And behind him... Matt reached behind his back and pulled out...

...a tail.

Matt collapsed onto his belly, no longer to stand up on even four limbs in the shock.

Delete began to reach out for Matt with one metal hand. "If there's something I like even more than a rabbit, it's a friendly mouse." he said.


	3. Matt's Bad Day

3.

Matt's Bad Day

Through all of the shock, Matt suddenly felt a wave of anger sweep over him. As Delete reached towards him to pick him up, Matt ran forward, leaped into Delete's metal hand, scampering up Delete's arm, and leap one more time at Delete's face.

"THIS AIN'T NO FRIENDLY MOUSE DELETE!" Matt screamed in anger.

He landed on Delete's nose, and bit it as hard as he could.

"Yow!" Delete exclaimed, suddenly straightening, banging his head on the side of the transformation chamber as he quickly backed out.

His hands grasped at Matt, trying to pull him off, but Matt held on tight. Delete's metal skin was hard, and Matt was surprised that he was even inflicting any kind of pain on Delete. Still, if he actually was causing Delete pain, that was all that matter at the moment.

Delete finally pried Matt off, holding him tight in on hand. "It's not my fault the Transforitron turned you into a mouse!" Delete said, wagging his thumb at Matt.

Matt nipped at it. "_You_ activated the machine." Matt pointed out.

"But the machine works on thought!" Delete said. "It transforms you into whatever you're thinking at the time!"

Matt opened his mouth to say more, but then promptly closed it. Delete was right, and now that he thought about it, a mouse _was_ the last thing on Matt's mind before the Transformitron activated. But he was envisioning Delete to be the mouse, not himself.

Apparently, the Transformitron didn't know the difference.

"That's beside the point!" Matt continued to argue. "It wouldn't have happened at all, if you hadn't tricked me!"

"You tried tricking me first!" Delete yelled back.

"Who cares!?" Matt yelled. "You pressed the button that consequently paved the road for the Transformitron to turn me into a mouse!"

"What's wrong with that?" Delete asked. "You're actually kinda cute as a mouse." Delete thought that phrase back through in his head, before adding "You know I mean that in the way, that, um, that I don't _like_ you, um..."

"I DON'T WANT TO BE A MOUSE!" Matt yelled, and finally squirmed himself free of Delete's grasp, going for the robot's nose again.

Delete grabbed him in mid-jump with his other hand. "Look, just relax, okay! We'll figure this out!" he said.

Matt took a couple of deep breaths, rubbing his paw through the fur on his head. "Okay, okay." Matt said, forcing himself to calm down. "Just...put me back in the machine and turn me back."

Delete opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off when the Transformitron's control panel suddenly erupted into a fury of sparks, a small fire poking out one corner.

Delete suddenly paled, like he just remembered something very, very, important too late to rectify it. This really worried Matt.

"What?" Matt asked. "You can still turn me back, right? Right? Delete? You can turn me back, right? Delete! Right? _Right?_"

Delete's expression said it all.

"Oh no." Matt moaned, suddenly realizing what they had both forgotten. "The NIC...oh no...oh no, no, no, no, NO!"

He squirmed his way out of Delete's grasp again, hopping on top of the Transformitron. "You...you can fix it, right?" he asked Delete.

Delete looked at him for a moment.

"Please don't say no." Matt begged.

So Delete shook his head instead.

"ARGH!" Matt yelled, pounding his fists on the Transformitron. "Why, oh, WHY, did that NIC _have_ to be only used, _ONCE?_ Hacker's a genus, why couldn't he make a proper one? Why, why, why, why, WHY?"

"Well, don't panic yet." Delete said. "If we remove the NIC, it should return you to normal."

Matt stopped pounding his fists, looking up. "You're right!" he exclaimed, his expression brightening. "Well, what are you waiting for Delete, a permission slip? Pull it out!"

Delete nodded and reached for the NIC's slot. He suddenly paused. "If I do this," he suddenly said, "the boss will be really mad at me."

"Delete, if you don't pull that NIC out in the next five seconds, you'll have a whole lot more to worry about than Hacker!" Matt said through clenched teeth. "_Pull it out!_"

Delete got the drift, and started pulling at the NIC.

"It's stuck." he muttered, and pulled harder.

Just when it seemed he might get it free, an umbrella suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wacked Delete on the top of the head, knocking him out like a light.

"And Motherboard said I wouldn't need the umbrella today." Digit mused, putting the umbrella away in his chest compartment.


	4. One Size Too Small

4.

One Size Too Small

"Digit!" Matt exclaimed in relief. "Boy, am I ever happy to see you!"

Digit looked down at the crumpled form of Delete for a moment, not answering. He then turned to the Transformitron's control panel, to the scorched slot in which the NIC still sat, then over to the transformation chamber. Digit's eyes widened, and walked right past where Matt stood to the chamber.

"Digit?" Matt repeated. "Digit! I'm over here!"

But then Matt suddenly realized what the problem was. Digit couldn't hear him, and therefore hadn't noticed him. It was the same problem he had with Delete. He had to be up close in order for others to hear him.

Matt scampered to the edge of the Transformitron, with the plan of jumping off it onto Digit's shoulder, but came to a sudden stop right at the edge. He just realized how high up he seemed to be, which, from his perspective, was several times greater than to anyone else.

Digit meanwhile, was staring at Matt's clothes, still piled up in the transformation chamber. "Mattie..." Digit muttered under his breath, a look of concern on his face.

He's adding two with two, Matt realized. Maybe he didn't have to get his attention. Maybe Digit would figure things out himself. Maybe he wouldn't have to jump a distance of more or less five stories just to get Digit's attention.

Digit solemnly pulled open the door on the chamber, and began feeling his way through Matt's clothes. "Matt?" he whispered, like he was afraid he'd waken someone. "Matt, are you here?"

He moved aside one piece of clothing to uncover a beeping sound that had been previously muffled up until this point. Matt's SKWAK pad. Digit pulled it out of it's pocket and stared at it for a moment, before switching it on.

"Digit!" Matt heard Inez's voice being emitted from the SKWAK pad. "Where's Matt?"

"Um..." Digit began, clearly unsure how to begin.

"Hey, where are you guys?" Jackie's voice now could be heard, "We've been waiting at the portal for the past five minutes. We were starting to think Hacker got you guys."

"That's...not too far from the truth." Digit said, still slightly unsure how h was going to break news of his discovery.

There was silence for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Inez could be heard asking.

"Um...well...see for yourself." Digit finally blurted out, then turned the SKWAK pad around so that the Transformitron and it's contents could be clearly seen.

Both girls gasped.

"What happened?" Jackie asked.

"I think Delete did it." Digit said. "Then regretted it."

"Of course, the NIC can only be used once..." Inez muttered, making the connection.

"But that doesn't mean we can't still undo what Delete did, right?" Jackie asked. "Just the pull out the NIC, and whatever happened should undo itself."

"You're right Jackie, I'll do that." Digit said, and started towards the Transformitron's control panel. Matt raced to the edge of the panel, but Digit still didn't notice him.

"Better hurry Digit, Hacker's coming your way."

"HEY!"

Digit whipped around in time to see Buzz launch himself at him.

"Yipe!" Digit exclaimed, leaping out of the way.

Buzz crashed into the Transformitron, making it shake. Matt stumbled for a moment, and nearly fell off the edge. Digit took the chance to make a running start and took to the air, dropping the SKWAK pad in the process. It slammed down next to Matt, startling him enough for him to step backwards, off the edge of the Transformitron.

Only have time to let out a gasp, Matt started falling. Failing out his paws, he managed to snag hold of a nearby power cord, and slid down it to where it plugged into the nearby wall. Stepping down to the floor, Matt breathed deeply for a moment to try and calm himself down.

"What's going on?" Hacker said, as he marched into the room, observing both of his henchmen starting to pick themselves up off the floor, rubbing their heads, and seeing the pile of clothes in the transformation chamber. "What happened?"

"Digit was in here, Boss." Buzz replied, standing up. "That's all I know. I think he was trying to take the NIC."

"Of _course_ he was trying to take the NIC." Hacker said. "What about this, though?" he reached into the chamber, and picked up Matt's shirt, stretching it out in front of him, like he was trying to see if it'd fit him.

"Dunno, ask Delete." Buzz said, then came over to Delete's side. "Hey, Dee-Dee, are you alright?"

"I...I don't know." Delete answered, cautiously standing up. He scratched his head. "Seems like I've forgotten something."

"Uh-oh." Matt muttered, knowing that might cause a problem. Delete's memory circuits were fragile, and a hard enough impact could cause him to forget something. Matt hoped this wasn't the case, though.

"Digit, are you there?" a voice suddenly echoed out into the room.

Hacker glanced over at the still active SKWAK pad lying ontop of the Transfomritron, and suddenly made the connection. Grinning wickedly, he scooped up the SKWAK pad.

"Hello, Kiddies." he teased gleefully.

"Hacker!" both girls shouted in answer on the other side.

"What have you done with Digit?" Inez demanded.

"The cyberturkey escaped." Hacker growled. "No doubt already heading back to where you two are. However, I do have a young boy here of your acquaintance."

"Matt!" the girls exclaimed together.

"Yes, he's my prisoner!" Hacker said, bluffing. Matt knew however, that he might as well be Hacker's prisoner. "Do anything to stand in my way again," Hacker continued, "and he'll get it!"

And with that final remark, Hacker smashed the SKWAK's screen and tossed the device aside.

"Now, let's find out what really did happen here." Hacker said, also coming to Delete's side. "Well?" he prompted the robot. "What happened?"

Delete was silent for a moment, scratching his head still.

"Please remember." Matt prayed fervently. "Please remember, please remember, please remember, _please._"

Finally, Delete spoke. "I..." he began hesitantly, "...don't remember."


	5. Need to Communicate

Note: The Solarian Cheese mentioned in this chpt IS important.

5.

Need to Communicate

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Hacker asked Delete, irritated.

Delete shrugged. "How else can I say it, Boss?" he asked innocently.

Hacker frowned, and began pacing back and forth, rubbing his chin. He started muttering theories and possible solutions to his dilemma. Matt couldn't hear them all from his hiding spot, but what he did catch all seemed very far-fetched.

Buzz, however, was still fussing over Delete, clearly concerned about his companion's condition. "Are you sure that's all?" he asked, urgently, "is there anything else you can't remember?"

"No, that's it." Delete said. "I think."

"Whatever it was that knocked you out probably reset you're memory circuits before all of the new information being channeled through them could be properly saved." Hacker said. "As a result, you've forgotten the few minutes before then." Hacker paused. "What's the last thing you _do_ remember?"

"Buzz running off to catch Digit." Delete answered. "I decided to stay there to watch over the Transformitron, just like you asked Boss. After that...it's blank."

"Digit must have been a decoy." Hacker muttered, "To try and lure you both away from the Transformitron and leave it unguarded. It doesn't explain how the Earth brat Matt got transformed, though." he was silent for a moment, pacing again. "Maybe there's more to this than just stealing the NIC." he said out loud, "Maybe their real plan is to try and use the Transformitron against me, using it to transform themselves into something even more unbeatable than they are now."

Matt rolled his eyes, deciding that Hacker was paranoid in addition to being slightly insane.

Hacker stopped in front of the transformation chamber, staring at the pile of clothes within. "Something must have gone wrong, though." he thought out loud, then grinned slightly. "At least it happened to him, and not me. I can thank them for that much." he stared at the NIC's slot for a moment. "I better find out what the problem is before I try this stunt again." he turned, and started for the Grim Wreaker. "I'll be in my lab, working on a new NIC." he said, "and possibly a safe guard to prevent this incident from happening again. You two stand guard."

"What for Boss?" Buzz asked.

"That earth brat is still around here somewhere, and no matter what he's been transformed into, he might still be able to cause problems." Hacker said, dismissively. "Plus, the other kiddies think I have him as my prisoner, and that's a statement I want to be able to prove in due time. So find him."

"But we don't know what he looks like." Delete bemoaned.

"I don't really care!" Hacker exclaimed angrily, "Just look for anything out of place!"

"Maybe if we remove the NIC..." Buzz started to suggest, but the glare he got from Hacker told him that was out of the question.

So the two robots stood at attention in front of the Transformitron, and Hacker boarded the Wreaker, muttering something about Solarian cheese. Matt studied the situation and sat down thinking it through, or at least the closest he could come to sitting in a mouse's body.

The solution was obvious; remove the NIC. Remove it, and Matt would revert back into his natural self. The problem with that was that Matt wouldn't be able to do it. And even if he was his usual self, the NIC seemed to be fused into it's slot, which would make it difficult to remove. He'd need help.

Hacker obviously wouldn't do it, and it was doubtful he could get Buzz and Delete to do it. He'd need the help of the rest of the Cybersquad, most specifically that of Digit. His knowledge of the technology incorporated into the Transformitron could prove very useful.

That just left the problem of how to contact them, because they were probably no where near in walking range now, at least walking range as it applied to Matt at the moment. He could probably use his SKWAK pad, even with a mouse's body, but it had somehow vanished from sight, and Matt wasn't sure if it'd be reliable now in it's damaged state.

The only other means of communication Matt could use was the Grim Wreaker's own radio system, and that was enemy territory. Sneaking around in there wouldn't be easy. But then, he did have several advantages, like the fact that he knew exactly were every usual occupant of the Wreaker was, and two of them weren't even onboard. Plus, being nothing more than a small mouse at the moment, he could probably go where he couldn't in the past.

Besides, did he really have a choice?

His decision made, he waited until Buzz and Delete were looking away and then raced across the hanger bay and up the metal ramp leading into the Wreaker. It's hallways were empty, just as it was expected. But then Matt realized a new problem. Being so small, he couldn't travel so quickly, and now he was realizing just how big the Wreaker _is_. It would take awhile to reach the Wreaker's bridge, where it's radio was.

Regardless, he pressed on, knowing that at the moment, it was his only hope. After traveling for several moments, he stopped when the ship's intercom clicked on loudly.

"Buzz! Delete!" Hacker's voice echoed all over the ship, and apparently outside the ship as well, "Did you two take that cheese I got from Solaria?"

There was a long pause, before Buzz's voice came echoing back, "No Boss, we haven't touched it, honest!"

"Well _somebody_ took it!" Hacker's voice came echoing back, "because it's not in the cupboard, where it should be!"

The intercom then clicked off. Matt took note that Hacker was in the Wreaker's in the kitchen at the moment, and pondered on what Solarian cheese looked like to pass the time.

Finally, after what seemed like a hike that seemed to have lasted hours and went over all of the Alps, Matt wearily reached the Wreaker's bridge, only to realize yet another problem to confront. The fact that the radio was on a control panel several feet above the floor.

Matt clutched his head, weary from his journey and from having to come up with so many solutions to his problems. "It would've been so much easier if Delete hadn't stayed to guard that stupid contraption." he muttered.

Spying Hacker's recharger chair nearby, he used it as a ladder to reach the control panel, and scampered over to the controls for the radio. Relieved that he almost had one big problem tackled, he began to struggle with the radio's controls.

He froze when a very large shadow was cast over him, and whirled around to confront the one casting it.

"So," Hacker mused, stooped low so that his eyes lined up with Matt's, "_here_ you are!"


	6. A Friend In Low Places

Matt gets a new friend. ;)

6.

A Friend In Low Places

"Hacker!" Matt exclaimed, surprised. He backed up into a switch on the control panel. "What are you doing here?"

Hacker didn't hear Matt apparently, and went on to say, rasing a large, club-like, object over his head, "_You're_ the one who stole my Solarian cheese!" and before Matt could say anything more, Hacker swung the club down on Matt.

Matt leapt aside at the last possible moment, the club striking the radio's control panel and making it erupt in a fury of sparks. Matt had barely enough time to register this fact as he was forced to scamper away across the various neighboring control panels as Hacker tried to crush Matt with his club again and again, smashing each control panel as they went.

"Come back here, you little mouse!" Hacker exclaimed, rasing his club once more to try and crush Matt. Once again, Matt was just one step faster. "No mouse will steal _my_ cheese and get away with it!"

Matt suddenly realized that Hacker thought he was no more than an ordinary household mouse, one that had someone snuck aboard his ship. In a way, this was a good thing for Matt, because if he could escape Hacker, Hacker probably wouldn't go to too incredible of lengths to track him down again. However, he still had to escape, which was NOT going to be easy.

Matt saw the recharger chair again, Matt leapt from the control panel he was on for the chair. Hacker brought his club down on the control panel Matt had been on a second earlier, realized Matt wasn't there, and swung his club again at the recharger chair.

Matt's jump carried him all the way to the back of the chair, which Matt slammed into and tried to grasp with his paws, but the chair was made entirely of a smooth metal, and Matt slid down it. Hacker swing brought his club to connect to the back of the chair, causing the chair to tip over onto it's back.

The combined motions of Matt sliding down the recharger chair and it falling backwards launched him into the air like a catapult. He soared across the room for a few feet, before smashing into the floor, skidding across the smooth tile floor another foot before coming to a stop.

Sharp pain stabbed at Matt's side as he forced himself up again and to run away from Hacker as the baddie began a fresh onslaught of club-swinging, leaving dents in the floor as he went on. Matt zig-zagged left and right to avoid getting smashed, hoping to end up at an exit or a hiding place.

However, he ended up at neither, and instead ended up in a corner of the room, with a heating vent sitting nearby, it's slits too small for Matt to squeeze through. Gulping, he peered up at the source of the shadow that now loomed over him.

"Got nowhere to run now, don't you?" Hacker taunted, a grin of victory spreading across his green face. "Now we'll end this, here and now!"

He swung the club one more time, Matt quickly leapt aside, the club nearly catching his tail as it slammed into the floor with such force it shattered the tile. And apparently it caught the club on something, because Hacker couldn't seem to lift again. It was stuck.

"Psst!" a voice suddenly whispered near Matt's ear. "Climb in here!"

Matt turned and saw the heating vent swing open ever so slightly, making for an opening, hopefully just large enough for Matt to squeeze through. Matt took the chance and launched himself into the opening, just as Hacker made a mad grab at him. Matt squeezed halfway through the opening, got stuck for one frightening moment, then suddenly popped through, landing in a dark vent.

"This way!" the mysterious voice said again, somewhere in front of Matt, hidden in the darkness.

There was the noise of small feet clattering against the vent's floor. Hearing Hacker struggled to try and open the vent all the way so that he could get in, Matt ran after the mysterious figure, no questions asked.

They traveled for some time, heading deeper and deeper into the Grim Wreaker's inner workings, the mysterious leader occasionally speaking long enough to say which way to travel. Finally, they arrived at an opening in the Wreaker's roof where it's refueling line connected. Matt just barely caught sight of something scamper up the line into another opening on the other side before vanishing from sight. Matt, having nowhere else to go, followed.

He entered into what seemed like a mini-sized apartment. Lit by small glowing pegs stuck into the wall at occasional intervals, Matt saw that the room he was in now and all the basic comforts of a bedroom. In one corner was a bundle of folded cloth that was clearly a bed. In another was a small metal case that held various other cloths, most of them little blankets. And finally, there was a small bowl of crystal clear water that sat near the bed and Matt assumed was for drinking. And that was only the one room.

In the far wall was another opening, greatly resembling a doorway, which lead into another room like this one, only with entirely other contents. The occupant of this small home was in there, and now walked out.

"Welcome to my home." he said politely.

Matt stared at the figure before him. It was another mouse, a real one, with light grey fur in contrast to Matt's currently strawberry blond fur, and a slightly bigger body. Other than that, they seemed very alike.

"It's not much, I know, but it works for me." the other mouse went on to say, starting to turn back into the next room. "Care for some Solarian cheese?"

"Solarian cheese?" Matt repeated, following. "So you're the one who took it from Hacker!"

"Yeah, it was a piece of cake." the other mouse replied with a chuckle, taking two chunks from a pile of the yellow cheese. "No matter what Hacker does to try and protect his food, I can find a way around it."

He offered one chunk of the cheese to Matt, who accepted and chewed on it. It tasted pretty good. "You do realize that Hacker is out to get rid of you now, right?" Matt asked.

"Oh of course, he always does." the mouse answered, unconcerned, "has yet to catch me, though."

"So you've ran into each other before?"

"Several times, so much so, that Hacker's just about given up _really_ trying to catch me." the mouse replied. "I'm telling you, there was nothing better for you to transform into. As a mouse, Hacker is only going to think of you as such and is going to be a whole lot less concerned about you running free in his ship."

Matt's ears perked up at the mention of transformation, and the other mouse saw it. "Yes, I know all about the incident with the Transformitron, having seen it in it's entirety for myself." the mouse said, answering Matt's unspoken question. "I was watching from a hidden spot during all of it. Didn't catch everything that was said, but enough to put two with two." he paused to take a bite from his cheese. "I then figured, that you not used to being a mouse, would need the help of an expert, and well, here I am!"

"Well, I don't plan on staying a mouse." Matt informed him. "What I really need is help in contacting my friends."

"Oh, I know." the mouse responded. "I didn't really expect you to. Still, it'd be nice to have another mouse around to talk to and be a friend with."

"You're all alone here, aren't you?" Matt asked.

"Pretty much." the mouse answered. "I occasionally seek out Delete. He'll sneak food to me every now and then, but Hacker forbids it, so he's usually not too willing. Other than that, I'm on my own." he was silent for a moment. "Oh, silly me." he suddenly said as a thought came to him. "I never told you who I am! The name's Joseph."

"I'm Matt." Matt replied, holding out one paw to shake Joseph's only to realize that it wasn't really possible in a mouse's body.

"Yes, I know." Joseph answered, "I've heard just about all there is to know about you, most of it from Hacker. He doesn't think too highly of you and your friends."

"Tell me something I don't know." Matt groaned.

"Anyway, I think I have a way for you to contact your friends." Joseph went on, "If you'll follow me."

He lead the way into yet another room, this one lined with various trinkets Joseph had collected. Most of them were very small, big enough for Joseph to carry in his paws. However, the biggest item, propped up against the back wall, was...

"My SKWAK pad." Matt said, grinning.


	7. SOS

7.

SOS

Matt quickly raced up to the device, now bigger than him, and began to examine how badly it was damaged.

"When Hacker so carelessly threw it aside earlier, it landed next to my hiding spot by chance." Joseph explained. "Even though that thing is far from light, and is insanely bulky for me, I was able to get it up here. Dunno if it still works."

"It should." Matt announced, "Looks like the only damage it received was the video screen, which, clearly, shattered." he glanced up at the cracked surface of said screen. "However, everything else seems to be in order. So it should work."

"Should." Joseph empathized.

"Yeah, there's a chance that it won't, but we won't know until we try." Matt said, and began pressing the buttons on the SKWAK, one at a time.

The speaker on the SKWAK clicked on and off for several moments, like the device was indecisive about whether or not it should operate. Finally, the speaker clicked on and remained on. A silent pause followed, and then a voice filtered through.

"Hello?" Jackie asked carefully and cautiously, wary of the fact that she didn't have any video feed of the person on the other side of the transmission.

"Jackie!" Matt exclaimed with relief, "It's me, Matt!"

"Matt!" Jackie exclaimed, "Oh thank goodness, Hacker said you're his prisoner!"

"Hacker bluffed, technically I'm not his prisoner." Matt explained. "However, I am stuck here, and can't escape."

"We'll have Mother B open a portal for you!" Jackie said.

"That's not going to be enough." Matt said. "I'll need help with the Transformitron."

Jackie was silent for a moment. "You don't mean that you actually _did_ get transformed?" she asked, "We thought that you contacting us meant that wasn't true."

"Well, it is true, and thus I can't undo it myself." Matt said. "I need you're guys's help."

"We're on our way then." Jackie said, after a brief whispered conference on her end. "But I have two questions. First question. Why can't I see you?"

"Hacker shattered the screen on my SKWAK pad after he told you that I was his prisoner." Matt replied.

"Okay, next question. What did you transform-"

But Jackie was cut off when Matt's SKWAK started beeping. Matt looked over the controls and quickly saw the problem.

"What's happening?" Joseph asked quietly.

"The SKWAK's running low on power." Matt explained. "It's battery pack must have gotten damaged." he returned his attention to the transmission, "Jackie, my SKWAK is running out of power, it took more damage than I first thought. Can't maintain this connection for much longer. Just get over here, and sneak aboard the Grim Wreaker. Don't worry about finding me, I'll find you."

"But...you...wait..." Jackie voice sounded in brief jumps, but eventually faded away into silence.

Matt sighed, leaning against the SKWAK. "Well, that's that." he said to Joseph. "We need a spot where we can keep an eye out for them, but be safe from Hacker and from twiddle-dumb and twiddle-dumber."

"I know just the place." Joseph said.

* * *

Several moments later, the two mice were lounging around, snacking on some of the stolen Solarian cheese, as they keep a vigil outlook for the rest of the Cybersquad from the Wreaker's bottom-left engine exhaust port. It was a very good place to keep an eye out of, for from here you could see out of the hanger bay that held the Wreaker out at the barren cybersite beyond, and you could see back towards the hanger's back wall where the jury-rigged Transformitron was, with Buzz and Delete still standing guard in front of it.

"This is great!" Matt remarked with a grin, one of few in the past several hours, "We can see almost everything going on in this hanger bay without them seeing us, it's a great place to sit and relax, and there's great snacking material."

And to drive the point home, he gobbled down a chunk of Solarian cheese.

"Not so bad being a mouse, is it?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." Matt admitted. "Still, I don't on plan on making it permanent, of course."

"Of course." Joseph said, absentmindedly pawing one chunk of cheese. He curled up into a ball, staring at the tip of his tail, and was silent for several moments.

Matt didn't notice, and was busy keeping an eye out for his friends, listening for any movement outside of the hanger bay. But he was surprised he heard movement from behind him, and turned around to see what was going on.

Hacker stepped out of the Grim Wreaker, a stack of new NICs in his arms.

"Boss!" Buzz exclaimed, surprised at their leader's sudden arrival. "Have you found a way to fix the Transformitron?"

"Kind of." Hacker admitted, setting the stack of NICs down in front of the machine. "We can't repair the one we've already got, and we can't remove it either. So, I made these to add on to the Transformitron. If it can't use the first one, then it'll simply switch to use the next one."

"Can these be used more than once, boss?" Delete asked, curious.

"No." Hacker replied, picking up the first NIC from his stack, "Which is why I made extras. In case anything else should go wrong, I have additional NICs to use to correct it, and gives me several tries to work out any bugs there might be. Now if you'll excuse me..."

And he set to work adding the new NICs to the Transformitron. Matt gulped as he realized what this meant. One, that he only had a small window of time to correct his dilemma, and that two, Hacker had a chance to transform himself, into whatever Cyberspace-ruling form he wanted once more...


	8. Rescue Party

8.

Rescue Party

Jackie, Inez, and Digit exited the portal outside Hacker's base of operations in the Northern Frontier with a thump.

"Why can't we ever exit those portals _safely_?" Jackie asked rhetorically, rubbing her backside as she picked herself up.

"Maybe the same reason why Digit can't ever land without bending his beak." Inez said with a giggle, pointing at Digit.

He had struck the ground at such an angle that his beak had bent upwards, covering the rest of his face. The girls giggled while Digit grabbed the beak with one hand and bent it back into it's usual position.

"Har har." Digit said sarcastically. "Now let's be serious. Mattie's in there somewhere transformed into who knows what and needs our help."

"Right." Jackie said, all serious now. "Let's go."

They snuck towards the entrance of the hanger bay housing the Grim Wreaker, and upon seeing that there was no one around in the immediate area, zipped inside, ducking under the Grim Wreaker and hiding behind the metal ramp that lead up inside the ship. They glanced over to the Transformitron where Hacker was installing the new NICs while his lackeys watched.

"That can't be good." Inez remarked.

"Okay, new mission goal." Digit said. "Find Mattie, and then stop Hacker."

"We don't have much time." Jackie said. "We better spilt up to find Matt. We'll start in the Grim Wreaker, since Matt told us to look there."

"See, there's a problem with that." Inez said as they snuck aboard. "Matt got transformed, but we have no idea what he got transformed into. How will we find him if we don't know what he looks like currently? He could be right in front of us and we wouldn't even know it!"

"Well, we do know that no matter what you transform into, you still keep some of the physical traits of your usual self." Digit pointed out. "And we also know it's not Hacker, Buzz, or Delete, so I guess that leaves everything else that's alive."

"That doesn't help much, but I guess it's the best we've got." Jackie admitted. "Okay, me and Inez will go this way. Digit, you go that way."

"Gotcha." Digit replied, and they went their separate ways.

The hallways of the Wreaker were empty and silent, making them seem eerie. Knowing there was nothing, or at least there shouldn't be, anything they needed to worry about, Jackie and Inez pressed onward.

"I hope Matt hasn't been turned into a germ or something." Jackie remarked as they went. "If he has, then we'll never find him."

"No, he's big enough to operate a SKWAK pad." Inez said. "That would place him bigger than a bug. Also, we know that he _shrank_ when he transformed, which means he's some size smaller than his usual size."

"That doesn't really narrow it down much." Jackie said.

"Actually it does, more than you'd think." Inez said. "Because there are only certain things in this world that would fit into those parameters. For example, Matt could be the size of a dog, cat, breadbox, or even the size of a..."

"MOUSE!" Jackie suddenly exclaimed in horror, and doing the first thing that came to her, booted the strawberry blond mouse that had just ran out in front of her across the hall.

"No!" Inez exclaimed, rushing forward, but she wasn't fast enough. The mouse skidded for a moment on the floor, then bumped into a panel. It slid open to reveal a shaft or a vent, and the mouse tumbled into it.

"Jackie!" Inez hollered, making Jackie flinch at how loud it was. "Did you even _look_ at that mouse?"

"No." Jackie admitted softly. "Why?"

"It had _strawberry blond_ fur!" Inez said. "Who else do we know has strawberry blond hair?"

"Matt." Jackie said automatically. Then her eyes widened. "Oh." she said, slapping her face.

"C'mon, we better go figure out where he went, and hope you didn't _seriously_ hurt him." Inez grumbled, and they both walked off.

They failed to notice that they were being followed by a second mouse...

* * *

A deck lower, Digit was wandering down the hallway idly, whistling a tune as he went, looking all around for any signs of Matt. He paused when he heard a soft thump on the other side of a door he was passing. He stood their for a moment, debating with himself, then stepped through the door.

He was in the Wreaker's laundry room. On one side of the room was a line of washing machines and dryers. On the other side was a long counter, meant for sorting clothes, no doubt. A half-full basket sat under a small shaft. Digit thought he saw movement from within the basket, and stepped over to get a better look, peering inside.

It was a mouse, which was picking itself up out of one of Hacker's capes, favoring one side of his body. It looked up and saw Digit. It seemed relieved to see the cybird, but that might have just been Digit's imagination. To get a better look, he picked up the mouse by the tail and held up in front of his face.

"YOWCH!" the mouse exclaimed, recoiling in pain. "Digit! Do you _realize_ just how much that _hurts?_ This is probably the most painful moment of..."

"Yoikes!" Digit exclaimed, dropping Matt.

He landed face first on the counter.

"Correction." Matt said, dazed, and holding up one paw. "_This _is the most painful moment of my life."

Digit stared at him. "Mattie?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Matt replied, picking himself up. "And boy, am I ever glad to see you."

"Mattie?" Digit repeated, still slightly in shock.

"I need you're help." Matt went on. "Hacker's installing tons of new NICs to the Transformitron. With them, he plans to get around the "use one time only" problem with his jury-rigged Transformitron."

"Mattie?" Digit said again, not really listening.

"So we gotta figure out a way to stop him _and_ get me back to normal." Matt concluded. He looked up at Digit expectantly.

Digit stared back for a moment. "_Mattie?_" he said once more.

"YES, IT'S ME! NOW WILL YOU STOP STANDING THERE SAYING "MATTIE" AND _DO SOMETHING_?!" Matt exclaimed.

"Oh right!" Digit said, scooping up his friend in his wings. "We better find Jackie and Inez then."

"They're on the floor above us." Matt said. "Make sure you explain to them, especially Jackie, what's happened _before_ they see me."

"Um, okay, but why?" Digit asked.

"Jackie apparently dislikes mice." Matt replied simply, rubbing the side of his body where Jackie had booted him earlier.

And with that remark, they exited the room in search of their friends.


	9. Reunited

This is mostly just a filler chapter, and is actually pretty lame in my opinion. It had potential, but that would mean longer discussions, which means more chapters, which means the longer it is to the end of the story, and i felt it was time to get on with it, so I skipped over discussion I normally would've covered.

Anyway, read and review please. :)

9.

Reunited

When Digit and Matt arrived on the floor Matt had last seen Jackie and Inez on, they weren't there.

"Now what?" Digit asked helplessly.

"Why not just call them?" Matt asked, realizing that was what they probably should've done in the first place.

"Oh yeah." Digit said, and while holding Matt in one hand, he opened his chest compartment and started looting through it for his SKWAK pad with the other. "Hm." Digit said after a moment. "I can't find it."

"Let me look." Matt suggested, and Digit set his friend on the end of his compartment.

Matt peered around first, then clambered inside, his small mouse body allowing him to fit inside perfectly. He began rooting around, shifting things aside so that he could see what was underneath. "You should really clean this compartment out, Didge." Matt said while he worked.

Digit was about to retort when he heard heavy footsteps coming his way. Knowing just whose footsteps they were, the cybird quickly closed his compartment and ducked into the shadows of the corridor.

Hacker walked by, stopping at a nearby door, directly across from where Digit stood.

"Now what was that code again?" Hacker asked himself, and began typing a security code onto a keypad that sat next to the door.

All Digit could do was watch, knowing that trying to make a break for it was too risky; Hacker could easily see him once he left the sanctuary of the shadows.

Within the suddenly dark compartment, Matt found a flashlight and flicked it on, bathing the compartment with light. He didn't know why Digit shut him in here, but assumed there was a good reason and continued on his search for the SKWAK pad. Finally finding it, he pulled it out of the junk that surrounded it, and switched it on...

* * *

A couple floors lower, Inez and Jackie were wondering where Matt had gone.

"Why don't we call Digit and ask if he's seen him?" Inez finally asked, after their search turned up empty.

"Good idea." Jackie replied and started pull out her SKWAK pad. She stopped when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

"ACK!" she yelled, and began to swing her foot at the mouse that just ran out in front of her.

Inez quickly intervened and physically grabbed Jackie's foot, stopped the kick. Jackie overbalanced and tipped over onto her back.

"Look before you act, Jackie!" Inez exclaimed, exasperated, and turned to mouse. To her dismay, it was an entirely different mouse, this one with grey fur.

"That's not Matt." Jackie said, stating the obvious, staring at the mouse from where she lay on the floor. "Unless he's dyed his hair."

Inez sighed, and said nothing more, shaking her head.

"Now can I kick it?" Jackie asked, leery of the mouse.

"What good will it do us, Jackie?" Inez asked. "Apparently the Wreaker is infested with mice. So even if we do find that one mouse again, which seems to be unlikely, the odds that it's really Matt seems are..."

"Shush." Jackie suddenly said.

"Shush?" Inez repeated.

"Shush." Jackie confirmed.

"Jackie, I'm trying to figure out our situation here," Inez said, annoyed, "and you tell me to shush?"

"Yes! Now shush!" Jackie said, flipping over onto her belly and pressing one ear against the floor.

"Jackie..." Inez groaned. "What are you..."

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That voice."

"Sure, your's and mine."

"No, that little voice, that you can hardly hear."

Inez crouched down next to her friend. "What does it sound like?" she asked.

"It sounds like..." Jackie began, then suddenly trailed off, turning her head to stare at the grey mouse, still sitting on the floor, staring at them. "...a mouse."

Joseph waved nervously at the two girls.

Shortly thereafter, Joseph had introduced himself and explained what all had happened to Matt in detail.

"So where is Matt?" Inez asked, holding Joseph close to her ear so that she could hear the mouse's voice.

"I don't know." Joseph replied. "But he can't be too far. One can travel very far very quickly when you're a mouse."

Suddenly, Jackie's SKWAK pad beeped, from where Jackie had set it down. Jackie looked down at it and picked it up, flipping it on.

"Hello?" she asked, hesitantly.

"Jackie?" came Matt's voice. "It's me!"

"Matt! Where are you?" Jackie asked.

"I'm with Digit. We're wondering where you are."

"Me, Jackie, and Joseph are on the third floor." Inez answered.

"Joseph?" Matt repeated. "Really? Anyway, me and Digit are on the fifth floor."

"We'll come and meet you." Inez said.

"Better not, I think we have company." Matt said. "Tell you what, we'll meet together at the Transfomritron, since we'll be heading in that direction anyway."

"Sounds like a plan." Jackie said, and they ran off.

* * *

Hacker finished typing in the rather lengthy security code, and the door opened. It was a closet. After the villain fumbled through it for several moments, he pulled out a spare power core, and set off back down the hall. Curious, Digit quietly followed from a distance, wondering what was happening.

After traveling for several moments, Digit suddenly remembered Matt and opened his chest compartment, pulling his mouse friend out.

"I got contacted Jackie and Inez." Matt explained quickly the moment he was within Digit's hearing range. "We're to meet at the Transformitron."

"That could be a problem." Digit said, "because I think Hacker's heading that way."

Matt looked up and studied the situation. Hacker was moving towards the Wreaker's exit, and they were getting pretty close.

"He doesn't know we're here, right?" Matt asked quietly.

"No." Digit whispered back.

"Then I've got an idea."

Hacker reached the Wreaker's exit, and started walking down the ramp, where Buzz and Delete waited.

"There." Hacker said, holding up the power core. "Problem is solved."

The instant after he said that, Digit rammed Hacker at full speed from behind. Hacker was knocked off his feet and was in the air. He hurtled towards Buzz and Delete, yelling. His henchmen froze in terror, which only made things worse. Hacker smashed into them, and the ball of cyborgs bounced once, then smashed into the transformation chamber, smashing through it's glass walls to stop in a heap against the rear wall of the hanger bay, unconscious, but otherwise okay. The roof of the transformation chamber wobbled for a moment, then caved in upon itself, sending shards of glass everywhere with a loud smash.

Digit stood shocked at the damage he had essentially caused, Matt watching from his wingtip, stunned. Suddenly Jackie and Inez showed up at a run, having heard the crash and coming to investigate, and were shocked at the damage as well.

"Well, that takes care of them." Joseph noted, nodding his head at Hacker and his lackeys.

"Yeah, but we've may have just made our problems worse." Digit said, stepping up to the Transformitron's transformation chamber.

"How so Digit?" Matt asked.

"The Transformitron needed the chamber to tell where to do the transformation process." Digit explained. "With it broken now, manual coordinates will have to be set."

"Why is that a problem?" Inez asked. "All we have to do is pull the NIC and go."

"That's a problem too." Digit said, studying the old NIC and the new ones Hacker had installed above it. "The only way to remove them that I can see is to take the whole thing apart."

"And that might take too long." Jackie said, eyeing the unconscious bad guys.

"So, now what?" Inez asked.

"I think I can still transform Mattie back into an earthling again." Digit said, placing Matt on what remained of the transformation chamber, "I'll have to set in the coordinates manually, but I think I have a good idea what they are."

He began to work at the controls. Matt braced himself, closing his eyes and focusing on being a human again.

"Here goes." Digit said, and he pressed the final button.

A loud zap rang out. Matt immediately reopened his eyes. He was still a mouse. However, now a another pile of clothes lay on the floor next to Inez, with a small furry head poking out.

"What has happened had better not be what I think it is!" Jackie the rabbit yelled angrily.


	10. Trial and Error

Just a reminder to you guys that'd it would be nice if you post a review every now and then. Personally, with this story, I don't really care if it's positive or negitive (I personally have my own negitive thoughs about this story)

10.

Trial and Error

"DIGIT!" Jackie roared as she studied herself properly and saw the transformation that taken place on her.

Beside her, Inez and Joseph her both breathing heavily, realizing just how close _they_ had gotten to getting transformed. Suddenly, a loud crackling erupted from the Transformitron itself, making Digit jump and step back from the controls.

"That's one less NIC to worry about." Inez noted, eyeing the smouldering slot of the NIC Digit had just used for the transformation.

"With only about fifteen more to go." Digit estimated.

"It was a waste of a perfectly good NIC!" Jackie yelled, struggling to her feet.

"Why? We would've destroyed them in the end." Inez said.

"I got turned into a _rabbit!_" Jackie persisted, her long ears flopping into her face. "It's a waste!"

"At least _you _didn't get turned into a little itty-bitty mouse that spends every moment of it's life in fear of getting stepped on, and is so little, no one can hardly hear you!" Matt was heard retorting, still sitting on what remained of the transformation chamber, and still a mouse.

"That's enough arguing!" Joseph shouted, trying to enact the role of the mediator. "So the cyborg made a mistake! Everyone does! But arguing over it won't help anybody to fix it!"

"Joseph's right." Inez agreed. "We still have a chance to fix it."

Jackie grumbled something inaudibly, and reluctantly went over to join Matt on the transformation chamber's roof.

"You won't be a rabbit for too long, Jax, I promise." Digit said, working with the controls. "I think I've got it this time."

"You'd _better_ Digit." Jackie replied angrily, her black fur standing on end, like a cat's.

"Relax Jackie, how do you think I felt when I found out Delete turned me into a mouse?" Matt inquired as Jackie curled up into a ball next to him.

"Let's just get this over with." Jackie said.

Digit nodded, and activated the Transformitron once again.

Kerzap!

The unconscious form of Buzz turned into a donut. Everybody stared at it for a few moments.

"Well, we're getting closer." Digit said, and began working with the controls once more.

Kerzap!

Delete turned into a full-fledged lion. He let out a subconscious snort, making everyone back up in fright, fearing the cyborg might wake.

"Digit, you're not making things any better..." Inez said.

"I know, I KNOW!" Digit roared, frustrated, as he violently worked with the controls for the fourth time. "I'm doing the best I can here! Hacker didn't exactly design this thing too well!"

"Speaking of Hacker..." Inez continued as the Transformitron activated again.

Kerzap!

Hacker turned into a rat.

Digit slapped his face in anger as Matt fell over laughing.

"Please tell me we can leave Hacker like that!" he said in-between laughs. "I mean, what better form for him _is _there?"

A loud clang echoed out as Digit slapped the side of the Transformitron. "If this isn't going to work this time, I'm going to take a sledge hammer to this thing." He vowed, working with the controls for what he hoped would be the final time.

Kerzap!

At first, nothing seemed to have changed. But then the whole hanger bay started to shake, and a cracking sound rang out somewhere in the far side of the room.

"Uh-oh." Digit said.

"Uh-oh what?" Jackie asked, hopping over to the cybird in concern. "What's uh-oh? Is it really that bad?"

"Yeah, it's that bad." Digit assured her, studying the wobbling structure of the hanger bay. "I think I transformed something in one of the walls."

"What's uh-oh about that?" Inez asked, stepping over.

"Well, it's destabilized the entire structure, which means it's all going to collapse at any second." he explained.

"Uh-oh." the rest of the Cybersquad said.

"We've got to get out of here!" Inez said, scooping up Jackie in her arms, and starting to run for it.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!"

Everyone turned, and saw that in the confusion of the last few moments, no one had noticed Hacker regain consciousness, figure out what had happened, and perched himself next to Delete's ear. Seeing that he now had everyone's attention, he stuck his rat head inside Delete's ear and roared...

"WAKE UP!"

Delete the lion woke instantly, jumped up onto all fours, and whether or not if he had registered what had happened to him and his companions and that there were intruders in the room was never made clear, for he ran at the nearest person to him, which was Inez, who held Jackie and Joseph in her arms.

With a yelp, Inez ran away from Delete, who was hot on her heels. Digit, in panic, turned around and began working with the Transformitron's controls again, apparently hoping to use it to fix things. Hacker, in all of the confusion, had gotten thrown off of Delete, and landed next to Matt, frozen with fright. Looking the villain up and down, Matt realized just how much bigger and stronger Hacker the rat was than him.

"You're mine!" Hacker said, and lunged.


	11. Conflict

Almost done with this story, which, is a relief to me, because I'm ready to move on to other stories. While I think this story is a clever idea, it's not owrking out as well as I'd like. But since I'm nearly done, I will finish it, just for the heck of it. :)

11.

Conflict

Matt dodged Hacker's lunge, and ran for it, scampering across the floor. Hacker slid by for a few inches, then turned around and ran after his prey. Digit watched to two rodents run by, then watched Inez run by, still carrying Jackie the rabbit, and Joseph. Delete the lion was still hot on Inez's heels, seemingly unaware of anything else in the vicinity.

The lights in the hanger bay flickered, making Digit look upward. Cracks started to spread through the roof of the building as it shuddered again. Digit knew that it wouldn't be long before it collapsed. Seeing that time was short, he began working with the Transformitron controls again, with the idea of trying to improve their predicament by transforming things at random.

But before he could begin, the ceiling crumbled slightly, and debris came crashing down on the Transformitron's improvised power core, crushing it. The Transformitron then powered down, no longer able to be used.

Digit cursed his luck, as he quickly surveyed the situations going on around him, apparently ignoring that he was there watching. Hacker the rat was still chasing Matt the mouse, and Delete the lion was still chasing the girls and Joseph. The hanger bay was about to collapse on them. Nothing had changed.

If it wasn't for the fact that it was a very serious position, he would've sat back and watched, for it was entertaining. And he might have had the whole ordeal with the hanger bay not occurred. Forcing himself back to the problem at hand, he wondered what he was going to do now. If only he could remove the NIC's, then that would resolve quite a few things, but they were stuck. He'd have to bash his way into the Transformitron in order to do...

Suddenly, Digit brightened with an idea, and quickly opened his chest compartment, rooting through it, dumping the stuff he didn't want aside. Matt the mouse was forced to skid to a halt as a book on rust care that Digit had thrown aside crashed down in front of him. Avoiding Hacker once again, he started forward again, going between Digit's legs.

"Digit, what are you doing?" he yelled as he ran by.

"Saving us, or so I hope!" Digit called back, throwing aside his SKWAK pad.

He found a ham sandwich that he had forgotten he had packed earlier that day, and set about eating it.

"Digit stop eating and DO SOMETHING!" Jackie the rabbit yelled as Inez stormed past, fleeing from Delete.

Digit obediently chucked the sandwich aside, then reached into his chest compartment once more.

"Ah ha!" he cried out triumphantly, and pulled out a full-fledged sledgehammer.

Gripping it with both wings, he swung it down onto one of the burnt-out NICs, the last one that had been used, creating a shower of sparks as the hammer smashed into it.

The effect was instantaneous.

The quaking room suddenly stopped wobbling for a moment, and Digit wondered if he had managed to revert whatever he had done to the structure in the first place to be more stable, but then the quaking eventually started back up again, telling Digit that the building's structure had already decayed to the point that it was unsalvageable.

Taking the sledgehammer up once more, he swung it again at another NIC. With a crash and a smash, the NIC shattered, and with a kerzap, Jackie reverted back into her normal form, clothes and all, in Inez's arms mid run. Inez overbalanced, and they crashed to the floor. Delete the lion tripped on the fallen girls, then smashed into the floor, skidding along some distance into a wall.

Encouraged, Digit prepared to swing the sledgehammer another time.

Elsewhere in the room, Matt the mouse suddenly found himself cornered by Hacker. Turning, he backed to the wall as the rat approached him.

"I've got you now!" Hacker yelled with glee, and lunged at Matt, the same time Digit swung the sledgehammer.

There was a flash of light, and Hacker was thrown backwards. Getting up, he looked at his prey, and wilted. Matt was now returned to his usual self. Matt patted himself over, just to make sure, checking to make sure that he had no large ears, no tail, and no fur to speak of. Satisfied, he bent down over Hacker the rat.

"You were saying Hacker?" Matt asked gleefully.

Hacker started to shout something, but the rat was too small for Matt to hear it clearly. So, grinning, Matt reached down and picked up hacker by the tail. The villain howled in pain as Matt swung the rat once and let go. Hacker sailed across the room and vanished from sight, behind the ruined Transformitron.

A loud crumbling sound rang out, and the hanger bay began to buckle.

"We've got to get out of here!" Digit yelled, quickly re-packing the stuff he had thrown out of his chest compartment, and running for the exit.

Matt followed suit, grabbing Jackie's hand as she picked herself up, and Digit pushing Inez for the exit, as she stooped down to retrieve Joseph the mouse. The ran for the exit, and just barely cleared it as the hanger bay finally collapsed in a loud crunch and a great cloud of dust.

The Cybersquad did not stop running until they were several cybermeters away from the ruins, partly out of glee to be out of that mess with the Transformitron...


	12. Alls Well That Ends Well

Last chapter. Pretty much just ties up a few loose ends, and is mostly filler. I DID take the chance to set the stage for the next cyberchase fanfic I'm going to be working on, entitled "Backup Support" and should be posted sometime this weekend.

12.

All's Well That Ends Well

The Cybersquad continued running until all they could see was the empty barrenness of the Northern Frontier and a rising dust cloud off in the horizon that had been produced when Hacker's hanger bay collapsed. At that point they stopped running, all breathing heavily.

"Whew, glad _that's_ over." Matt remarked. "I didn't really like being a mouse."

"But you were so _cute_ as a mouse!" Inez remarked tauntingly.

"One of the main reasons I didn't like it." Matt said back.

"Well, personally, I agree with Matt that it's good that mess is over." Jackie remarked. "Being a rabbit for a day is no picnic."

"Sheesh, and you guys thought you had it hard." Digit remarked, panting as he pulled out his SKWAK pad to ask Motherboard for a portal home. "_I _was the one who was under pressure to _fix_ it."

"And fix it you did, Didge." Inez said, patting Digit on the back.

"Yeah, thanks Digit." Matt added.

"Now, let's see here, we got Matt back to normal, destroyed the NICs _and_ the Transformitron, and stopped Hacker for the day..." Jackie said, listing the items off on her fingers. "Seems like we've forgotten something."

"How about me?" Joseph's voice suddenly piped up.

Inez looked down at the mouse still cradled in her arms. "Good question." she said. "I mean, where can he go now?"

"Well, not home." Matt said. "We kinda destroyed it along with Hacker's hanger bay."

"So we need to find a new home." Jackie remarked.

"You really don't have to, though." Joseph quickly stated, trying to be modest.

"Actually, we kinda do, Joseph." Matt said. "I mean, I, at least, owe you one for helping me escape Hacker, and contact my friends."

"And you helped me and Jackie track down Matt again." Inez added.

"And we destroyed your home." Jackie finished. "The least we can do is help you find another."

"The question is, where?" Matt asked.

"There's always Control Central." Digit remarked absentmindedly, still working with his SKWAK pad.

"I suppose that would work." Matt said. "But I was really thinking about..."

"That would do, really." Joseph quickly intervened. "Anyplace where it's safe, that's got a roof over my head, food, and preferably anyplace where Hacker _isn't_ going to be."

Jackie laughed. "Then Control Central is the place for you." she said.

"One portal for home please, Mother B." Digit said into his SKWAK pad, and a moment later, the usual swirling, pink, vortex opened, into which the kids, Digit, and Joseph all leapt into, being whisked away to old homes, and new ones.

* * *

Back at the wreckage that was once the hanger bay, Hacker pulled himself out of the rubble, now back in his usual form, and surveyed the damage. The hanger bay was clearly gone, and would have to be rebuilt, and the Transformitron was undoubtably crushed in the collapse and was long gone too. Two of the Grim Wreaker's landing legs had buckled and the entire ship now leaned to one side, it's black hull dented and dirty from the collapse. But otherwise it was in working order. Satisfied, Hacker addressed the next issue on his mind.

"Buzz?" he hollered. "Delete? Where are you?"

The two robots poked their heads out of the rubble not far from where hacker stood, also back to their original selves.

"What boss?" Buzz inquired.

"Clean up this mess!" Hacker yelled walking off, "Then get to work repairing the Wreaker! I want to leave within the hour!"

Buzz and Delete looked at one another. "But boss, we can't do all that in just one hour!" Delete bemoaned.

"I don't care!" Hacker hollered back. "I want to start on my next plan to conquer cyberspace, and more importantly, rid it of those earth brats, once and for all, _immediately!_"

"But I thought the Transformitron was..." Buzz began, motioning back to where the device had once stood, but Hacker cut him off.

"It's gone now, can't you see that?" Hacker asked, forcing open a door on the grim Wreaker and squeezing inside. "No, I've got an entirely new plan. And I think it will work..."


End file.
